Onward We Go
by GingerNutGin
Summary: The Forest Temple is conquered, and Link is left grasping to understand the loss of his only childhood friend.


The Kokiri village had always been vibrant, small and secluded with walls of trees surrounding the hollowed stumps that green-clad children called home. Fairies and flitting insects lazily rolled through the still air, crawling out and about in newfound freedom. They gathered at the mossy ground, around the scratches and tears in the grass where the monsters had ripped into the earth and pulled fresh soil.

Along the trampled path that ran across the glade's carpet, a man sat on a knobby stump. He was dressed as the children were, with a rich green tunic and long floppy hat. Though as well as he blended in, the nicked shield on his back and the sword dangling at his waist was enough to make his presence jarring.

He was still, with his hands clutching at his knees and his back slouching over. Occasionally a forest child would run by him, stop to stare, and then run away. Each time that this happened, he winced terribly and sighed.

Across the path was a tall tree house. The ladder that had been laid over the bark was rotting and neglected, and the entrance that had been cut into it was threaded with vegetation.

The sight of it, broken down like that, was enough to send the man into a flurry of paranoid trembles. What if there was another monster hiding in there sitting right on top of his old things? What if everyone had stolen all of his stuff and pilfered it out to each other? It wouldn't have been surprising…

The fairy that floated around his head slowed and glided down to face him. The light around it flickered and softened. "Link?"

Link shook his head and bit at his lip. His hands grinded at the tops of his knees, rustling the thin fabric of his tights.

Navi sighed. "It's not good to keep it all bottled up, you know? It's perfectly natural to be upset." She fluttered down and rested in the crook of his neck. "Anyone else would be."

"I'm not 'anyone else'," Link said. His voice rasped and hurt from yelling so much.

He looked down the road towards the Great Deku Tree, or at least what was left of him. Seven years of standing as a corpse had made his branches start to crumble and disintegrate, and the sight of it made Link's stomach lurch. He quickly turned away and pressed a cold hand to his cheek.

"Think about the positives!" Navi took flight and went back to circling Link's head. "There aren't any monsters wandering around now that the temple is all done. Not only that, but it looks like they didn't hurt any of the Kokiri while they were here."

"But they were!" Link remembered entering the forest and seeing dozens of wolfos scrounging around and clawing up grass. They weren't interested in the children, just the forest's destruction.

And if the forest was destroyed, then the Kokiri would be as well.

The blue light encased around Navi blinked and flashed. "I meant physically! It woulda taken them a long time to get the whole forest all ripped up, and you didn't even have to rush to get them all cleared out."

"I guess you're right," Link said.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed one of the shaggy haired forest children peer at him from behind a tree. He recognized him as one of Mido's old cronies.

Navi noticed him too. "Don't pay him any mind, okay?" she said. "You would have stared too."

The boy slowly eased away from his hiding place and approached them. His fairy flew a good distance behind him. He was cautious, with his knees bent to spring and flee if Link so much as made one sudden movement.

Link just stayed still and watched him, trying to remember the boy's name but coming up with nothing. Many of his childhood 'memories' often came up fuzzy.

"Um, excuse me, mister?" The boy asked him. His eyes were hidden by his hair. Link remembered that it always had been. "How come you got a fairy floatin' around you?"

Navi hovered over to Link's pointed ear. "You must not let him know who you are," she hissed.

Link had never been good at lying. He stared at the boy for a moment, not knowing what to say.

The boy awkwardly shuffled back and forth at his silence. He kept his eyes at his clothed shoes. "Look, I guess that isn't important… I wanted to ask something else," he said.

In the back of his mind, Link could recall this very boy being one of the many who had endlessly teased him. He remembered being chased down the village square, being pelted with stones and deku nuts that blinded him whenever they rapped against a rock instead of the soft ground. He remembered making endless beelines to his tree house and knocking down the ladder once he climbed all the way up.

"Sure," Link said, "what is it?" He tried to smile, but he was too bitter to even muster that up.

"I saw you go into the Lost Woods a while ago." The boy shuddered. His fairy flew down and nestled against his neck. "I was just wondering, while you were there, did you see a girl with green hair?" He clutched at the frayed end of his tunic and shook the bangs from his eyes. "Her name's Saria and, well, we haven't seen her-"

"No." Link cut him off. "No, I haven't seen anyone like that." His face was strained.

The boy stepped back and his hands rose to his chest. "Oh, O-Okay. I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bother you, sir." He bowed. His fairy grabbed at the scruff of his shirt and pulled him back. "Forget I said anything! Sorry, sorry!"

With that, he whipped around, grabbed his fairy by the wings and sprinted for the nearest thicket to jump into. After a few moments, the forest grew still again.

Navi sighed. "Well, they've always been kind of shy with strangers. Don't take it so hard."

"I could have done something," Link blurted out. He lifted his legs to the stump's surface and wrapped his arms around them. Pressing his face against his knees, he closed his eyes.

"Link, it had to be this way. You know that." Navi's tone was firm. "Saria _is_the Forest Sage. She always has been." She fluttered down to perch on top of Link's head and settled there.

"But-"

"No, listen! You weren't the only one who felt left out here, Link. Which would you rather have: her being lonely here or her being somewhere where she really belongs?"

Link unhooked his arms and let his legs slide down the stump's rotting bark. He kept his chin pressed to the hollow of his neck. "The second one," he muttered.

"Exactly, and you know that she's fine, right? She gets to protect the forest while you get to go do the other temples." Underneath her glowing shell, Navi smiled. "It's what she wanted, you know? To help out."

"Yeah…"

From long, long distance off, some of the Kokiri were crawling from the thickets and tree trunks. They all stared at Link and the crushed wildlife around them with a kind of bleary sleepiness that made Link wonder just how long they had to hole themselves away.

As they kept staring and whispering to one another, Link stood and adjusted his belt and shield. "We should get going," he said.

Navi nodded. "That might be a good plan."

So they made their way to the hollowed out tree trunk at the end of the wood, crossed the rickety bridge and left for the fields. Link said nothing more of the matter; instead he commented on useless things like the hot climate compared to the forest and the way the Epona kept avoiding the forest's entrance.

All the while, Navi kept her seat on top of Link's head and worried. She worried about the next temple. She worried about Zelda. But most of all, she worried about the fact that she was forcing a boy to grow up in the worst way imaginable.


End file.
